Ren'Py - Town of Magic [v0.70.005] [Deimus]

Too much of a grinde! I gave up after way to many hours of being stuck in a very boring loop.
shame to see jet another potently good game wasted by pointless waste of player time good Art but if i have no cloue on how to progress or any kinde of canllange, its not worth the pla

Great game, smooth graphics and UI.The story structure is very logical.In particular, the plot where the player is spirit possession and controlled is fascinating, and there are no branches of the main plot yet, but there will be branches and different endings depending on the plot of the game.Corruption, submission, slavery, or justice may have different choices in the future development.

There are several disadvantages:

1, The Lewdness parameter has very little effect on the game, neither how the plot develops nor how the character is evaluated by those around him.

2, Those plots are completed, those are not completed, it is best to give a hint, so that the player does not do unnecessary grinding.

Anyway, I'm going to give this game 5 stars and look forward to more updates.

0.55.010-->0.59.004: Very promising but also very grindy, particularly if you're unaware of how heavily possession plays into the game. The game updates monthly and the dev seems to address (some) issues the player base brings up, so I can see this game making it to 5-stars by the time it is finished. I can easily recommend Town of Magic, particularly if you're looking for a bit more game in your porn games. I'm updating this review to reflect a newer version of the game. The original review will be in white, while changes/insight are at the end of each section in blue.

Lewds/Gallery: Animations are mostly of the protagonist (Celica) getting molested or raped by monsters mid-combat. Celica doesn't seem to mind it that much. You can disable monster sex in the options though, so then the lewds are getting molested buy a ghost, demoness, or slime girl and a bit of masturbation while possessed. There's no gallery in the game but most scenes are easy to trigger and only a few aren't repeatable. All are animated, which is nice. There's also some lesbian scenes which sort-of put Celica in the aggressive role, and it seems like the dev is going to incorporate more scenes with humans and humanoids.

Combat: Pretty straightforward. Cast spells, kill enemies. Sometimes enemies get a free attack at the start of battle, which is nearly as cheap as the way some get two actions per turn. I guess it sort-of balances out since they'll take a turn off to tear Celica's top while she can Magic Missile their face nonstop. Unfortunately, most of the spells are just the same single-target spell in a different flavor. Enemies molesting Celica is actually a fairly interesting mechanic instead of just being an avenue for lewds. Since you can still cast spells after they grab on, you can play risky by whaling on their friends instead of immediately struggling them off, making it easier to deal with them that way since Celica doesn't have any AoE spells. Getting molested also gives you more skill experience after battle (+10% per molestation, max +50%) so you might want to let them be for a bit. Of course, each molestation raises Celica's lust meter which stuns her for a few turns when full. An additional downside is that if enough monsters are molesting her at once you might end up stunlocked. It becomes less of an issue once you can bring allies along, but you might still turn off monster sex just to reduce the time it takes to grind. Combat is a bit slow, but that might be a consequence of the game engine. There are now AoE spells, though they're dual element and you don't have access to them until you've bought all the base spells. Your allies are more robust too, so it's unlikely you'll be stunlocked even with monster sex turned on.

Story: Perfectly serviceable. Celica rolls up looking to be the best mage; we hear there might be demons about; it'd be real neat if all the Celestrians hadn't left. Nothing groundbreaking, but I far prefer it over a story that does weird stuff just to try to stand out. The story takes some predictable (and less predictable!) turns. The general tone is somewhat lighthearted, so all-in-all the story really works for me.

The Grind: Theoretically, not that bad. You clear one area, head to the next, see that enemies hit hard and you need ice magic to stand up to them, go back the previous area to collect enough gold to buy the necessary spell while also gaining a few levels along the way. It works for the first few areas, but then enemies become simply impossible to beat without gaining five levels first. They also use status attacks which completely disable Celica (sometimes during their free turn at the start of battle), molester her to climax, and now you're stunlocked. Even if you turn off battle sex that just means now you're dead. So instead you have to save scum and hope your first few explorations yield the item you need to craft the relevant anti-status potion so you even stand a chance. And if that weren't bad enough, you also have to grind to raise affection levels in all the possession-based relationship routes. Once you get enough relationship bars you can actually talk to the people in the possession-based routes, so their grind isn't so bad. Allies have been improved, and each area now gives you a hint when you enter if a certain anti-status potion will be useful. I haven't played from the start in a fresh save, but it feels like the grind has been slightly lessened. You'll probably still need to grind to finally get the item you need for a new outfit to drop.

Possession!?: Yeah, possession plays a major role in this game. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a "possession game," but certain outfits and the ability to progress other relationships are locked behind possession relationships. And the grinding! The demoness, slime and ghost all start off as enemies. You usually need to beat them to advance the story, but after that you need to sort-of lose to them to advance their relationship. I say "sort-of" since you need to let them strip and climax Celica which isn't a traditional loss. Even if they say they just want to talk there's usually no way to just talk to them until you've advanced their relationship significantly, so now you have to jam the wait key all battle since there's also no auto-wait or forfeit function. Losing against the ghost causes her to posses you and go battle monsters (which is nice of her), but it takes so many rounds of possession that by the time you realize what she's about you're too strong to really need her. But you gotta raise her anyway because those 10 relationship bars aren't just for show. On the plus side, you can eventually just talk to the ghost and ask her to train in a specific area, so that lessens both the relationship and item-acquisition grind.

In Development?: Notably. The Lewdness stat does nothing, the grind is real, and there are a handful of items/areas which don't really serve any purpose. Still, the dev adds content every month and has been pretty consistent with updates, even if each update isn't equally large. A decent amount of tips have been added to help smooth out the new player experience, while most updates also bring a new monster and NPC animations. The art in the newest release is a little wonky in places, but I can imagine that's just them breaking in a new artist.

[v0.55.010] This game is very enjoyable (maybe even excellent, a strong 4 stars for sure).

The tags have already told you whether it's your thing, I guess.

The cast of characters is super fun, the plot is interesting and the dialogue is really good as well.

The combat system is a bit slow, but ok. The complexity of equipment, abilities, items, spells is sometimes a bit of a hassle but acceptable and still fun. (I thought it was a bit difficult to guess which items will be worthwhile, but you can pretty quickly buy all of them). The game is not that difficult, so perhaps I have ignored an awesome item to my detriment, without noticing.

The content for each character is good. But, because it is good, it's always a letdown to have reached the end of content. I hope this game takes off and becomes really long.

The landscape you travel is divided into distinct screens. But, screens that are far away from the town tend to have more sparse content. I hope that each map location becomes more dense.

Once you can reliably defeat every enemy in a location, combat becomes very boring, because the system is so slow. It will take a short but significant amount of time to load the combat screen, maybe endure one of their attacks, do the spell, see the creature die, fade out....


Animations can look weird because body poses are reused at times. The masturbation animation has an awkward shoulder position, to mention one example. But, most animations are really interesting and look good.

I think that I would enjoy a slightly larger variety of sexual content or a bit more kinky stuff. For a porn game the sexual content is fairly ...vanilla, porn-game-vanilla, with tentacles.

Great game with great potential. The animations are good, and the art is indeed very unique.
Honestly, I've played many games out there, and this one is one of a kind.
Most sexual content is provided in the battles with monsters which makes them very interesting.
Grinding through the battles is very enjoyable as you have skills to learn, items to find, and events to unlock.
There's also a character in the game that helps you level up. At some point, you become too powerful that you can find everything with ease.
There are also some fascinating characters in the game where you can build relationships with. I really hope the best for the game developer as this game is truly a masterpiece in the making.
I can't wait to see what happens in the next update.

if it weren't for the patreon build that adds cheats and dev tools this'd be a 2 star at best, the game has potential but is kinda marred in bad/poor design choices. but locking off shit like cheats behind a paywall is money hungry at best, and scummy at worst. the dev tools are more understandable at least and i can understand those being behind a paywall (maybe not for the price they are however)

the game also features some pretty poor choices of design in terms of turn based combat, the are games that have done worse but i think even the very first turn based RPG's had a better grasp on balance and gameplay than this does, having to grind to overprepare just in case you get unlucky enough to get stuck in a combat loop is repetitive and boring and just not fun game design from a gameplay aspect, let alone from an H-Game aspect (its hard to be aroused when you're annoyed)

everyone and their mother has mentioned this so [Bad grind comment here]

the animations are above average at least, but that's not saying much when there's no gallery or easy way to view some of the animations. and from what i've seen no one has taken the task of recording them and posting them somewhere online

all this and more is increased by the fact this game is very slow, while i don't expect to be a demigod killer within the first hour, i do expect to be at least somewhat close to what could be amounted as "outside of the intro" within the first few hours, it took me a surprisingly long time to get my first combat encounter and an even longer time to get my second.

all in all you'd probably be better off waiting for this to be finished and *hope* the dev takes note of how grindy the game can be and actually take the recieved criticism in stride, or find a different H-Game to play if you can't be bothered waiting

A great game with great potential. Grinding is not the least bit boring, the skill system is very interesting, the animations are great. I just really hope that in future updates there will be an option to play or team up with other female npcs.

I've played up to version 0.38
I've enjoyed it a lot and the interactions between all the characters.
The main character gets to interact with a decent chunk of characters, and it cleverly uses the other characters as mechanics, as an example Nel the ghost can unlock an auto grind feature for you where she does so by taking over your body.
Unlike other renpy games tho, you cannot skip through scenes that you've already seen as that feature seems to have been disabled.
The grinding can be annoying, and there's a lot of it, however, thanks to nel, you can just keep it running in the background while you do something else.
The rates however were bad in v0.19, but after i updated to 0.38, that was less of an issue as the items to increase your chances have been upgraded.
Getting used to Nel though, makes it a bit awkward to have to start farming again when a new area gets unlocked and can't use her.

With update 0.38 i wish there was a better way to communicate to the player what to expect with dealing with the succubus. I don't know if i should've killed her or let her have her way with me. But since Celica the main character let's other creatures always have their way with her, I went with that route, and gave me another fight i had to let her take advantage of.
I wish there was an auto wait button until you want to snap out of it, so i don't have to spam next until i get violet the slime, the succubus or any other monster i want to try out to see how they violate Celica.

Pros:
- Good art, the sprites are pretty and sexy
- Neat combat, while not revolutionary it is pretty good
- Unique ways to have a character build of some sort
- Lots of events to uncover and stuff to collect

Cons:
- RNG up the ass, literally everything is RNG
- Insanely, and I mean ridiculously, grindy due to the RNG
- You can get stuck in Status+Sex loops forever
(Get hit by a paralysing/sleeping status and then orgasm, both of these things stop you from taking turns. This can loop forever if you can't take a turn between paralysis/orgasm loops.)
- Takes forever to get anything done either because you have to randomly explore places to progress, randomly find random rare treasure to progress, etc.

This game sucks but the art is fine. That's all I've got from it.

Honestly, not a bad game. Major problems are:

-The grind is a little intense for very little pay off.
-No gallery.
-Art is average to below average, depending on the scene.
-I liked most of the H-Animations, but some of it is poor.
-Development is slow, particularly with adding new enemy variety.
-Sometimes you can get soft locked into H-Animations for a few rounds, it's not the worst thing in the world but it can feel like a waste of time.
-Direction isn't always clear, i.e. leveling up the ghost past 2nd bar.
-Low appearance customization, and the few items that do exist are locked behind a lot of progression / grind. Appearance is usually for fun (though some of the items do add stats in this game), so I don't really understand why this is.

I will say that the ability to let the ghost basically act as a bot for you to farm materials is a good addition, it's just unfortunate that getting that far takes a lot of grind.

I'd say it's worth while to play if you have time, and the game looks like it could be a lot better in the future, but for now if you're only interested in the H-Scenes just download the save to save yourself hours of grind.

I really like this game. I like the art, the character. I quite enjoy the 2d stye art games and this one is not exception. I do have one complaint, however. The grind is really bad. It needs a fix. I put up with it because games like this are rare, but it's really pushing it.

[v0.28.651]

It breaks my heart to rate this 2 stars because the animations are top notch and the story / events are great but THE GRIND. It's seriously unfun to spend 30 min trying to loot an item for a quest in a porn game by spamming you keyboard and mouse to waste as few hours as possible. It doesn't help that the game is extremely slow in the controls, there is no way to skip anything and the transitions take far too long.

If you somehow can remove the grind ( either by cheating or modding ) then play it because this is the only issue this game has. Or the dev could add an option so that people who dislike grind can avoid it, making it a win win for everyone.

Edit : I lowered my stars to 1 after seeing a 17.50$ tier on patreon for cheats and developper options. I absolutely hate when the dev(s) create a problem and sell the solution, I highly doubt the grind will be reduced, time will tell.

It is unusual game on Ren'Py. Good animation, old school graphic art, but be ready to the grind.

So core gameplay of this game is rpg with turn based combat. There is already alchemy, some good quest.

That good game deserve more attention and i think in the future this game deserve be released in steam.

v0.19.708

Fantastic retro visuals, combat rape, fun plotlines, and a lot of promise. It's a quintessential grindy turn based sex RPG. I can only hope that the sex elements expand to include the hot NPCs that accompany the main character.

The game has a lot of exploration and slow expansion, as various choices one by one lead to new areas unlocking. It feels very linear in a pleasant, undistracted way, while steadily showing more and more sex enemies and options. It slows down towards the end of the content, but that could easily be remedied by including sex with party members besides the main character.

[v0.55.502]

Amazing game! (5-2) / 5

What's the -2 for? (lack of direction; GRIND)

A -1 for lack of direction, there's plenty of characters, many of which have their own relationship level, locations, and items.
BUT they get unlocked at different times under different undescribed conditions, interact (or don't) under unknown and combine in mostly mysterious ways.
While the seer can guide you about relationships and barkeep about vague story progress direction, for item crafting it's either normal item crafting (item _> gold -> mithril) or a unique combination to figure it out;
additionally it doesn't help that every time you want to interact with an item it shows them all: clothing, equipment, alchemy regents, story items and makes a mess

B-1 for the GRIND, experience and loot are completely dependent on a random number generator via chests that can show up instead of a monster, then whether it's a common resource, an uncommon material or precious rare usually progress related item, so grinding them is a must, even with maxed out gear to get luck and chests end up spamming explore and run or having the ghost do countless runs to get equipment EXP, chests or resources so you could grind further.

BONUS- You currently cannot max out spells if you go for mana, life; or hardly useful cleanse and charm spells; relationships are a grind too- repeat the same event enough to reach a threshold to go a tier up.
BONUS2- you have to spam through some lengthy debuffs and the interaction buttons shift places depending on who you bring

These aspects completely change the game from incredible and a recommended unique experience to an 'endurance test' with necessary AFK grinding and spam clicking segments.

Warning: the version I played is horrendously grindy with sluggish combat. (Edit: version number 0.13.310.)

The mechanics and RNG can be atrocious (getting key events to trigger was a pain, and the clock is always ticking), but the horny content and writing are solid, even worth the headaches. Good paranormal possession is very hard to find, especially as its own plotline! Same with decent lesbian content mixed in with other sex acts and sexualities. The retro visuals are refreshing and well done throughout. The numerous combat encounters and struggling scenes are promising for future variety.

The game is a feat of what the engine can be made to do. I forgot that I was playing a Ren'Py game. Some of the mechanics do need to be streamlined to do what RPG Maker already does by default (mainly thinking of speeding up text and random encounters, click prompts are a chore).

Once the gameplay is streamlined, this game will be truly excellent. The content can only improve from here.

Wow, just wow!
The game in its state (0.13.310) pinned me down for two evenings, until I've made it to the very end of the beta! This is extremely rare, to be honest…
So, let's start with the 'minuses'.

CONS:
1) Slow pace of fighting. Unless you're using autobattles, which can speed-up the experience gain if you click very fast. UPD: 0.38 Still slow, including autobattle sex, even with announced improvements.
2) Non-stoppable autobattles take great amount of time. I literally launched an autoclicker, and left PC to wait for the character's stamina to be depleted.
3) Autobattle fuck, if you've made all preparations --- autobattles will take extreme amount of time. Luckily, you can avoid autobattle fucking if you don't use allure skills beforehand.
4) Player can't select the map for autobattles. I guess there is some script or algorithm about it, but I didn't find a way to return to lower level maps to rewatch autobattle-fuck. For example, I got the maximum allure for autobattle-fuck already after the first two locations became obsolete. UPD: 0.38 Not anymore. At some point of relationship, you can select the map where your character will be guided.
5) Ally is useful only in the very first battle, when you can opt to do this together. Later on -- they are almost completely useless when you do the main quest together. UPD 0.38: The ally is still weak, but can be used as a cannon fodder if you want to go on with the story.
6) Everything in the story is rather expected. You even can guess what would happen in the updates. Or maybe it's just me feeling old…
7) Quest notifications. None. It's possible to get stuck not knowing what to do next. Well, there is a bartender who tells some hints, but a quest journal would really help. UPD 0.38: Not anymore! The system is not ideal, and there are still hints, including relationship advisor -- but much better than it was earlier.
8) Ally is not force-fucked during battles. That's really a shame! She's hot, literally
9) Can't skip through the text with the usual RenPy hotkeys.
10) Loot drop is random, but hell I've made so many runs to actually get the freaking enchanted thread for crafting. UPD 0.38: Clearing / looting a whole map still takes ridiculous amount of time, even with golden artifact to search for items. You may expect 0.5-1 hour of autobattles per map.

I think that's it about the negative, but the positive overlaps anything written above!

PROS:
1) Pixel graphics and animation. Done great. The characters, battles, events, moving ---- all is next to perfect
2) The porn genre. Tentacle monsters, slimes, hornets, fairies, spirits, eagle rays. NO males!!!111one UPD 0.38: Not anymore, there is now a male demon/zombie, unfortunately.
3) Multiple variations of a battle-fuck.
4) The corruption is NOT forced! You can quickly increase Lewdness, or avoid it whatsoever.
5) Alchemy is useful, easy, and can be automated. UPD 0.38: The only issue is that you can't use alchemical potions on companions, except 2 resurrection potions -- which are limited!
6) Underleveled enemies don't hurt you whatsoever -- which is great for watching the scenes.
7) For the version this low 0.13.310 --- VERY much content! Every time I finished a quest, I've expected the end, but no, I could play for more UPD 0.38: The development dynamics is a bit low -- only a little of content between 0.13 and 0.38 version, compared to version 0.13 alone.

To the developer:
This is a masterpiece candidate! Even with the flaws, your combination of the style, content and genre are a rare occasion (if not one and the only).
Wishing you to stay true to the spirit you've set up so far.

Surprising amount of complexity so far. Game mechanics, menus, crafting system, all solid. Lewd animations, particularly the newest ones (the electric jellyfish) are quite good, but in general there isn't an extreme amount of content here yet though. The ghost possession plot is great. All this game really needs more is narrative content as the core is very well done.

It reminded me of Fairy tale almost to taste of it.
Not that hated it but had feeling it almost was clearly different. There no summon creatures thankfully or strange dragons in guild.

Celia joins a guild where she learns one spell and she has to work killing slimes.
I found that dull and sometimes over time hard because clothing shop didn't have any clothes make it better, Potion shop sold once blue moon stuff you needed.
Guild-master didn't appear only if you made enough money they could tell us hey he be there when earn enough.

My suggestion add more areas to hunt. expand the town, have underground area, rogue guild, Lord or mayor. Add more mobs too!

Like : no need create a new character, or name character. It role play environment.

Dislike: Limited areas to explore, wish to see more.